the cut*off

This event is actually a benefit for The Orphanage, a Saturday morning radio show hosted by Danny Blis and Dave Lane on KTCK-1310 AM the Ticket. Both Balis and Lane were both real orphans who organize this concert each year in support of Fort Worth Adoption agency the Gladney Center. Normally, this annual event offers a good lineup, but this year's quartet of stellar local acts is truly a high-mark.

Interestingly, the Headliner is not the main attraction here. Fort Worth's The Cut Off, has plenty to say- and a force way of saying it. Packaged Up For Beginners, The Cut Off's most recent effort, shows the band finding a balance between its Pixies fixation and its more original mix of garage rock and '60s psychedelia. Frontman Kyle Barnhill has one of the best snarls in the region and guitarist Jayson Hamilton can negotiate a killer riff quite effectively. - Dallas Observer

We're only four months into 2008, but it already seems that North Texas is cranking out top quality tunes at an astonishing rate this year. Add to that ever growing pile The Cut Off's sweeping sophomore album, Packaged Up For Beginners. The Cowtown quintet's collaboration with uber-producer Salim Nourallah has resulted in some dark, devastatingly melodic compositions that slip under your skin and stay there. I can't shake the vocal similarities between Kyle Barnhill and Glen Phillips (not a bad thing, mind you) or the fine mixture of left field non sequiturs and searing metaphors.

Beginners is a masterful showing, a record that grows richer with each successive spin. - Fort Worth Star Telegram

This is a brilliant record of understated proportions. Not only a statement of maturity and truly capturing their own sound, but a record so strong and fluid it is hard to believe it is not a 4th or 5th outing by a well seasoned band. Cross threaded with beautifully woven harmony vocals, unique and enticing piano/keyboard passages, and a push-pull emotional range of tempos and indie rock flourishes. "Black Market Value" is a singe so strong it is truly unbelievable this isn't a multi-thousand selling indie act...at least yet. "Need A Release" and "Better Off Dead" are brush strokes of Neil Young writing rock music with it's country/western roots shining through. "Pleased to Please You" slithers and shimmers along like a gorgeous afternoon soundtrack song, straight out of Ray Davies' catalogue. Both "Waiting In the Dark" and "Luggage For Light Years" are full of Pavement and Replacements-esque melody and raucous volume changes while still keeping in theme with the record. And throughout all the eleven tracks is woven just the slightest influence and touch of Wilco's highly preferred and oft underrated "Summerteeth". This album is so likable and it truly proves the maxim that you don't need a big budget $ to make a great record, just great songs. And like the best records throughout rock and roll history, "Packaged Up For Beginners" isn't easily definable and that's what makes it just so damn good... - iTunes review

While still worshipping at the altar of Frank Black (with a menacing snarl a la famed '60s psycho Sky Saxon, Kyle Barnhill, the front man for Fort Worth's The Cut Off, has conjured up his best set of songs for the band's excellent third effort, Packaged Up For Beginners.

By melding the garage/psychedelic drone of the old efforts with a new found art/pop sensibility, The Cut Off has moved light years beyond the naive, Pixies-influenced chutzpah of 2006's Rorshach EP.

Barnhill still has the look of a serial killer, but on Packaged Up For Beginners, his shirt is pressed and he might even be wearing a tie. Hell, it isn't until the fifth track, the thunderously riff-drenched "Luggage For Light Years", that guitarist Jayson Hamilton makes his presence known. Previous to that, it's all about tortured mood as Barnhill muses (rather sedately) about world politics ("Enjoy The Weather") and his own homicidal tendencies (the creepy "Waiting In The Dark"). Rarely has murder sounded so appealing as producer Salim Nourallah gussies up Barnhill's playful sadism with mellotron and strings while thankfully never overwhelming the dissonance that made The Cut Off so intriguing in the first place.

"Life is hard, especially when you're smart," Barnhill sings on "Better Off Dead" a cut that perfectly encapsulates this inventive disc's merger of garage and grandeur, thus showing a progression that's truly incomparable territory for The Cut Off. - Dallas Observer

The four young Fort Worthians known as the cut*off- featuring Kyle Barnhill on guitar and vocals and Jake Webster on shoulder dislocating drums - have cut their teeth on countless gigs across the Fort Worth-Denton-Dallas scene. This makes them an intriguing hybrid of veteran and amateur- they're polished enough to sound like a hellacious hail-and-thunder storm passing through, but to impulsive (right now) to care much about being taken seriously. They've been hand-picked by Frank Black (yes, the Catholic) to cover "Monkey Gone to Heaven" on a forthcoming Pixies tribute album, and they've just released a debut full-length called "Polarity" that almost captures the playful cynicism that they convey so exquisitly in live gigs. In a rare coup, the cut*off commands attention by shurgging while shredding their guitars. - Fort Worth Weekly written by J.F.

Speaking of Fry Street Saturday, there's a relatively new and relatively good Fort Worth band playing at Club Clearview called The Cut*Off. A seven-song demo the guys sent up here sounds a bit like Nirvana, but not enough to get on your nerves. They've got some growing to do, but at least they're growing in the right direction. - Fort Worth Star Telegram written by Malcolm Meyhew

"...Like the man who built his house upon the rock, The Cut*Off have chosen an excellent starting point. Most of these songs are traditional pop riffs, much like those used cunningly by Frank Black throughout his career, though occasionally injected with more heady pitches..." - DallasMusicGuide.com written by Dick Sullivan

"... through constant gigging across the Metroplex, Barnhill et al. have been able to refine their sound into something quite interesting. Which isn't to imply that they're slick or sophisticated in any way -- what they're offering is your basic Rawk 5.0 version. Thus, on Polarity (their debut full-length), moments of shoegazy grandeur like "Overdrawn" and "Masterplan" rub shoulders with more balls-out rockin' episodes like "Big Swim" and "Push," and both styles share space with some head-spinning studio tomfoolery.

At his best, Barnhill snarls like a descendant of one of those '60s teen scene brats. His and Jayson Hamilton's guitars intertwine in interesting webs of squealing feedback, wild glissandos, and grunge thunder. Rhythm boys Chad Sones (bass) and Jake Webster (drums) crash and thump like every engine room from Puget Sound to the Thames. What's most appealing about these guys is the way they sound like a bunch of kids playing with a new toy, one called rock 'n' roll." - Fort Worth Weekly written by Ken Shimamoto

"Can't hold 'em down: The dudes in the cut*off have matured into a marquee indie-rock outfit." - Anthony Mariani

"...The right way to do '60's-ish jamboree-style rock is a la the cut*off's new Rorschach e.p., produced by Salim Nourallah at his Dallas-based Pleasantry Lane Studio. All five songs are exemplary..." - hearsay